Waking up after a lovely rest day is hard to do. In just 24 hours we had grown accustomed to a more leisurely pace. But a new day awaited. We met up with our new biking benefactor, Russ Buschert, at approximately 7:30 a.m. and left Hyde Park Mennonite Church. I am told that tailwinds were favorable as the bikers left the city to continue our journey eastward. They were so favorable, in fact, that one could say they actually sailed along. By lunchtime we were in Mountain Home, only a biker’s hour away from our final destination… the Gingerich home.

While the bikers enjoyed an easier bike ride, the support crew also had a very active morning, as usual. Filling up our huge water jug, buying ice and filling up the vehicles with gas. Never a dull moment. We gathered up the fruit so graciously provided by the Hyde Park folk for the morning break, while all the while attempting to complete various writing assignment and other Bikemovement website projects.

During lunch Russ shared stories about college pranks and the connection between our faith and the social reality around us. We said goodbye after lunch with what has become our goodbye-biker ritual, the abrazote (big hug in Spanish). However, he couldn’t leave us without one more gift, a bike pump. We have truly been blessed with the wisdom and giving spirit of the bikers who have joined us for a few days.

Imagine driving along in a deserty landscape, cresting a hill and seeing before you a green valley with a river, a few farms, antilope, trees and good roads. Welcome to the Gingerich household. Rudy, Colleen, and Dylan welcomed us with cool drinks, cool air, a beautiful home and backyard, a fire pit, sweet corn, ice cream, cookies, granola, a laundry machine, a trampoline…. The place is truly amazing. Colleen said that when they started thinking of landscaping options for the house, she wanted an oasis. I think she got one and we were blessed by its beauty.

At dark, Dave shared his story around the campfire. In Portland the conversation had so much to do with finding spaces within the church for greater vulnerability and authenticity. In our own group, the brief times of sharing about our lives before we sleep have become holy moments. We are still getting to know each other. Testing how much we should share from our particular contexts. But in those moments when an individual chooses to take a risk and talk about the questions that keep us disconnected with the church, I suddenly feel connected to something very real, a moving church consisting of people who happen to live mostly on bicycles, a car, a pickup and tents.

The starry sky was a feast for the eyes. Two recent cases of West Nile virus in the area kept us from sleeping without tents. Otherwise, it would have been a perfect night to sleep with the brilliant canopy above us.

–Alicia

Posted by Alicia Horst

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 18th, 2006 at 8:42 pm and is filed under Trip06. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.